Anyone gone teetotal after heavy drinking..if so how did you do it and for how long have you kept it up ??

[no1andno2]

Anyone ? I need some help and fast..........

Yes, I have, MIFLAW, read the big book.

But I do think a lot of myth surrounds AA and that you have to speak up and admit things, IYKWIM.

I haven't read Allan Carr.

I gave up smoking after falling violently ill whilst pregnant with DD1. In fact I was getting sick before I'd even missed my period!

I'm genuinely GLAD that I'm an alcoholic, if that doesn't sound too weird. I mean that I'm glad I don't have to question it any more, and I'm free to get on with my life.

Of course it's scary the first time you admit it, but it's a leap of faith, really. Once you've done it, you wonder what took you so long. And it all seems much easier from this side of the fence - although I understand all too well the reluctance to make the leap. I spent ten years trying to control my drinking. What a waste of time ...

Does Allan Carr's stop smoking method mean no fags EVER, too?

I think some people can quit and have the odd fag.

But others like my dad definitely can't.

No - I'm talking about Alan Carr's The Only Way To Stop Smoking which starts going on about alcohol and drugs at the end.

The "Big Book" of AA has pride of place on my bookshelf too, of course - though I had to start at the back (the stories) and work toward the front (the theory) when I first came around.

You're right, a lot of it can be applied to real life and maybe lots of non-drunks would have a happier life if they followed the 12 steps - but, as it says in the "12 and 12", that's hard - who would bother doing that if they didn't have to?

I actually hadn't realised Carr wrote a book about stopping drinking, too.

Only ever heard of him in terms of quitting smoking.

(and didn't he die of lung cancer?)

Fairy, I cringe when I think about the money I spent on booze. Now there was a waste!

sorry, x-post there, MIFLAW, about Allan Carr book.

Allan Carr does indeed say that you should never, ever smoke again or take tobacco or nicotine in any form.

And when he talks about drinking in that book, he says the same about drinking - leave it alone, never touch it again.

That's the main practical difference between him and AA, in fact - swear off for ever and be happy about it, as opposed to renew your decision one day at a time.

I wondered whether he had softened on this view in the drink-specific book that everyone's talking about.

Now I'm curious about this book . . .

Not curious enough to buy it, but might pit stop in the library on the way home from getting the girls.

I am not sure that he uses the words never drink again but the whole book is about convincing you that there is no real attraction to alcohol ie. it is a poison and that is just causes devastation - so ie. why would you want to continue to drink. I read the book for the first time perhaps just a little over a year ago and I stopped drinking for arond 3 months - the second time I read it it had no effect on me whatsoever so why I am going to read it again I suppose is because I am deseparate for something to make me stop.

I gave up smoking 8 years ago using his smoking book - never had a fag since. I dont know that everyone on this thread is afraid of AA. I think what people are afraid of is admitting that they are alcoholics its such a big word

The living in the day certainly helped me through my really bad stages of ill health.I find if I do live in teh day everything is so much easier but we are always being encouraged to plan ahead which is hard to stop doing!

Alcoholic is a big word indeed and terrified me initially. I try to avoid using it on this thread for the same reason, except about myself.

But AA does not require anyone to use the term, though most of us do.

His smoking book worked for me, too - but then, I believe him that no smoker is truly a casual or social smoker. All the smokers I knew - and know - seemed to be smoking against their will and always about to quit or cut down.

With drinking, though, I know lots of people who clearly can take it or leave it, and I now realise that I am not one of them.

The difference explains why I personally didn't use AA thinking to stop smoking and why I didn't use Alan Carr thinking to stop drinking. To me, they are clearly different beasts. But if it works for anyone on here, I wouldn't knock it.

I also think that, while "alcoholic" is a big word, it's less big - certainly less hurtful - than "drunk", "turps-nudger", "piss artist", "loser", "soak", "dipso" and all the other terms i was sure were being used to my back (and sometimes to my face) back in the day.

I've always had problems with what actually defines an alcoholic.

I've just looked it up on wiki.

"Modern medical definitions[1] describe alcoholism as a disease and addiction which results in a persistent use of alcohol despite negative consequences."

Obviously I need to keep thinking this through as I don't want to stop drinking... which is of itself part of the problem I guess.

Oggsdog - I'm sure this will sound like a stupid question but why don't you want to stop drinking? You certainly don't come across as someone who derives any enjoyment from it - quite the reverse, in fact.

Genuine question.

If the alcohol has all the power then it is likely you are an alcoholic.I have found that most alcoholics have an actual relationship with drink in every sense of the word which regular drinkers just don't.We have explained it to our son in stages initially told him it was like an allergy that dp just can't have alcohol as he reacts badly to it and it has serious consequences long term.As he has grown older he has kind of worked it out,

I don't want to stop drinking because I like the sensation of being slightly drunk. The way it takes me out of myself and the edge off things.
I see it as a treat.

It's daft though because I don't actually have anything I need to take the edge off.

If you have nothing to take the edge off how do you know it is working?

Perhaps that's not a good way of explaining it.

I like the hit. However it is/whatever it does that makes you feel different five minutes or so after the first drink.

I'm thinking this through as I write it and the most enjoyable bit is the effects after the first drink.

Well, I think I've mentioned my trip to the smoking clinic and what they said.... Basically, I smoke rarely, maybe as much as once a month, if that. This is apparently enough to keep all the little brain receptors alive and living in hope. It was a shock to be told that, as I really don't miss cigarettes at all and rarely think about it.

I am not going to stop drinking, and frankly it is not something that I am spending much time thinking about either. No doubt I will be back, bleating that everything is spiralling out of control, but I'm not there at the moment!

I am going to try to drink only when it feels safe to do so, since I don't really think that alcohol reduces anxiety.

A Dipso is a binge drinker, not neccessarily someone who is dependent. That's what it says in one of my psychiatry books anyway.

According to Wiki "Dipsomania is a term which describes an uncontrollable craving for alcohol", it describes it as a compulsion to drink.
"There appears to be no real difference between the definitions of dipsomania and alcoholism, although in psychiatric circles, the etiology of this phenomenon does differentiate itself from true alcoholism."

Bla - thanks for the definition, but I was talking about the power of the word "dipso" to hurt when used as a term of abuse, rather than its clinical sense (for the record, I wasn't a turps drinker either, but the name would still have stung.)

Oggs - you sound like me - you like the buzz of the first drink and feeling slightly drunk but rarely stop after the first drink or when you're slightly drunk. Do you ever wonder why that is? I bet that, in most other areas of your life, the fun bit is where you try to linger as long as possible, rather than going straight through it at speed.

You may find, too, that what you "like" has ceased to come into it - most people would probably say that they "like" unprotected sex, but it's not everyone who is able to indulge themselves on that score.

Yeah its the label not the definition that is the problem with alot of us - thanks Man -Allen Carr goes on about how alcohol is an acquired taste and that we fool ourselves that it does not taste good -but you know the 1st glass of wine of the evening is always delightful !! Like ogsdog I dont want to give up completely just held a handle on it - I can when I am with others its when I drink on my own its a problem - which I invariably do

should have said fool ourselves that it tastes good !!!

this book sums up a lot of what my experience was like, too.